Barnstable backs FORWARD

Tuesday

Barnstable Town Council on Feb. 7 approved $250,000 in Community Preservation Act funding as the town’s share of a $2.4 million Dennis project designed to house eight adults with autism.

“We’ve been working on this for four or five years,” said David Kaplan, managing director of FORWARD, or Friends and Relatives with Autism and Related Disabilities. “The opportunity is really now to make this all come together. It really doesn’t matter what town the facility is in. Everyone is going to have equal weight based on need.”

Kathy McNamara Ohman, president of Forward, told the council that, if fully funded, two duplexes would be built on five acres of town-owned land in Dennis. Cape Abilities would provide the group home services and work with the State Department of Developmental (DDS) Services to select the eight residents who will live there.

“There is no guarantee of where the residents will come from," Ohman added, although she said it's likely placements would be from Barnstable.

State Rep. Tim Whelan also attended the council meeting, endorsing the project as addressing a very serious need on Cape Cod: children with autism who grow into adults with autism who lack housing.

“Once they turn 22, the help just stops,” Whelan said. “Barnstable has such a large percentage of the Cape population that it’s very likely that at least one, if not more, of the occupants of this home would be residents of the Town of Barnstable.”

Mark Milne, Barnstable Finance director, said Dennis appropriated $500,000 in CPC funds along with $147,000 private donations toward the construction of two duplex homes. Pending town meetings later this spring are $120,000 from Yarmouth CPC, and $50,000 each from Mashpee and Chatham.

In addition, FORWARD secured a $1 million grant from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.

Dorria DiManno, chair of the Dennis Planning Board, called it “a very worthy project" that would help fill “a very desperate need.”

Likewise, Sheila Lyons of Wellfleet, a former Barnstable County commissioner and current FORWARD board member, said autism is becoming more than an emerging need.

“We invest in these children up until (age) 22, and then we walk away,” Lyons said. “A community is defined on how they help others in their community.”

“I love the concept, I just am conflicted about the funding,” Cullum said. “These are lifelong, forever homes. I’m just really conflicted about it.”

Rob Brennan, president of CapeBuilt Development and chairman of the FORWARD building committee, said Dennis is leading the funding.

“Dennis’ population is six percent of the county’s population. Their $500,000 is 35 percent of non-state funding," Whelan said. "Barnstable is 20 percent of the county population, or 18 percent of the project funding. It roughly tracks proportionately. Think of autism as ‘an equal-opportunity spectrum disorder.’”

Councilor James Tinsley countered that there’s no guarantee that patients from Barnstable would benefit from the project.

“This is a community preservation fund, and in this instance, we need to think about the Cape Cod community,” Tinsley said. “Theoretically, we could have eight Barnstable residents in that home.”

Councilor Paula Schnepp asked whether FORWARD was at least able to commit to placing Cape and Islands residents in the Dennis houses.

Rick Cavicchi, area director of FORWARD, said off-Cape patients also would be eligible to live there, reiterating that the decision would be based on need.

Councilors Britt Beedenbender and Debra Dagwan spoke in support of the project.

“There is a need that has to be filled, and we need to do our part to support that,” Beedenbender said.

“We need more housing for this particular population,” said Dagwan. “The instance of students with autism in the schools is growing.”

That some Cape towns are contributing zero funding is concerning, said Councilor Phil Wallace.

At that, Councilor Paul Hebert declared, “We need to take care of our Cape Cod community. They are all my brothers and sisters, and I don't care what town they're from.”

Ultimately, the council unanimously voted in favor of the project, and the standing-room-only audience applauded.

“FORWARD has truly become a great example of how state and local government and communities can work together on a project like this,” Ohman said, adding, “we would not be here today without the assistance of Housing Assistance Corp.”